this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2024

178 points (92.4% liked)

Linux

48677 readers

435 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

178

There are sane people with this many VMs on a personal machine, right? RIGHT? (startrek.website)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

95 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Half of these exist because I was bored once.

The Windows 10 and MacOS ones are GPU passthrough enabled and what I occasionally use if I have to use a Windows or Mac application. Windows 7 is also GPU enabled, but is more a nostalgia thing than anything.

I think my PopOS VM was originally installed for fun, but I used it along with my Arch Linux, Debian 12 and Testing (I run Testing on host, but I wanted a fresh environment and was too lazy to spin up a Docker or chroot), Ubuntu 23.10 and Fedora to test various software builds and bugs, as I don't like touching normal Ubuntu unless I must.

The Windows Server 2022 one is one I recently spun up to mess with Windows Docker Containers (I have to port an app to Windows, and was looking at that for CI). That all become moot when I found out Github's CI doesn't support Windows Docker containers despite supporting Windows runners (The organization I'm doing it for uses Github, so I have to use it).

(page 2) 46 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Yes but most of them are off lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Looks normal for testing stuff. I have 5ish in my desktop hypervisor.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I run a different LXC on Proxmox for every service, so it's a bunch. Probably a better way to do it since most of those just run a docker container inside them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I wouldn't call that terribly efficient.

I would do 2-3 VMs with docker and maybe a network share

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Why mix docker and VMs? Isn't docker sort of like a VM, an application-level VM maybe? (I obviously do not understand Docker well)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Serious answer, I'm not sure why someone would run a VM to run just a container inside the VM, aside from the VM providing volumes (directories) to the VM. That said, VMs are perfectly capable of running containers, and can run multiple containers without issue. For work, our Gitlab instance has runners that are VMs that just run containers.

Fun answer, have you heard of Docker in Docker?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I have a real use case! I have a commercial server software that can run on Ubuntu or RHEL compatible distributions. My entire environment is Ubuntu. They also allow the server software to run in a docker container but the container must be running RHEL. Furthermore, their license terms require me to build the docker container myself to accept the EULA and the docker image must be built on RHEL! So I have an LXC container running Rocky Linux that gets docker installed for the purpose of building RHEL (Core is 8) imaged docker containers. It’s a total mess but it works! You must configure nested security because this doesn’t work by default.

Instructions here: https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/how-to-run-docker-inside-lxd-containers#1-overview

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

LXC is much more light weight than VMs, so it's not as much overhead. I've done it this way in case I need to reboot a container (or something goes wrong with an update) without disrupting the other services

Also keeps it consistent since I have some services that don't run in docker. One service per LXC

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Yeah.

My home server runs that many, but it's a monster dual xeon.

The freebsd instances have a ton of jails, the Linux vms have a ton of lxc and docker containers.

It's how you run many services without losing your mind.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

If I could get vbox to work* on my laptop or find the drive to learn QEMU, then I would have plenty on there. For now I'm just stuck with plenty on my desktop running win10.

*I have installed it a few times on my Debian based distro, but I swear every time I do nothing to it and it destroys itself. Works fine one day, then the next I turn on my laptop, after the only changes being that I created and ran a VM and it decided to hate me and not even boot the program. I think I'm just cursed.

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Well I do but I have a machine with 3/4 of a terabyte of memory on it.

Work scraps are great sometimes.

How are you running the MacOS VMs. The machine I have is a cheese grater so that makes it easier.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Are you running macOS or Linux as your host? My MacBook is M1 and I found the performance running ARM windows and ARM Fedora via UTM (qemu) to be pretty good.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

On the cheesegrater(2019 MacPro) it’s a little convoluted. During covid times it was my single box lab since it had so much memory (768TB). So I was running nested ESXI hosts and then VMs under that. I also have a M1 MacBook Pro that I had parallels run ARM VMs (mostly MacOS, Windows, and a couple of Debian installs I think).

I have been looking at VMWare alternatives at work so for the hypervisors I’ve been playing around.

I do this stuff for a living but I also do it home for fun and profit. Ok not so much profit. Ok no profit but definitely for the fun. And because I love large electric bills.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That’s a beast of a Mac. Wake on lan is your friend. I have the same problem with my Threadripper. I wrote a script that issues a WOL command to either start/unsuspend my Ubuntu machine so I can turn it off when not in use. It’s probably $70/month difference for me. Most of my virtualization is on Linux but I’ve moved away from VM Ware because QEMU/KVM has worked so well for me. You should check out UTM on the Mac App Store and see if that solves any of your problems.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Man this thread has taught me all sorts of things. I will definitely check out UTM. Thanks for that!!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I found a prebuilt OpenCore for KVM. https://github.com/thenickdude/KVM-Opencore

I then changed the config.plist to make it think it was a 2019 Mac Pro.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I had a VM but somehow the virtual drive got corrupted? And it wouldn't let me install, update or uninstall VC++ runtime as a result. I'm gonna try again later, but it's a worrying start.

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I have about that many. Looks good to me! I have two Windows VMs. One for work and presentations. One for games and Adobe. A bunch of random Linux VMs trying to get a FireWire card to work and a Windows 7 VM for the same reason. I’ve also for several Linux VMs trying out new versions of Fedora, Ubuntu, or Debian. A couple servers. Almost none of them are ever turned on because my real virtualized workloads run in docker or LXC! I never could get Mac VM to work but I have an AMD CPU and a MacBook so not too high priority.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Screen sharing from Linux is amusing though, so far I've yet to have anyone even mention it (hyprland so looks very different to Windows)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Bahah i have like 7 but im concerned by the fact i probably forgot the password to half of em xD

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why would anybody need an OS other than the bottom one?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I think the answer is obvious. There are so many better alternatives available today. Some examples include:

Windows ME
Glorious Leader's Red Star OS
Temple OS
Don't use an operating system - sacrifice all your your time to studying the ways of the mighty Zarthadonatoxator instead. All hail Zarthadonatoxator! Zarthadonatoxator is the only true way!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Me and my multiple personalities taking turns driving this sinking boat of a life.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

For windows I either use a mingw toolchain from mxe.cc or just run the msvc compiler in wine, works great for standard C and C++ at least, even when you use Qt or other third party libraries.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (3 children)

GPU passthrough has always been one of those exciting ideas I’d love to dive into one day. My current GPU being a little older, has only 4GB of RAM. Oh the joy's of being a budget PC user. Thankfully it's more of a "would be nice rather" than an "actually need"....

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Very few people need it but it’s awesome and a lot of fun and lets you spend more time in Linux than dealing with Windows. The VFIO Reddit and Arch wiki are great resources. I have GPU, USB, and Ethernet pass through on my Ubuntu machine and it works great, but I needed the Arch wiki to really figure out what I was doing wrong when I first set it up. Level1Techs is also a good resource on YouTube and forums because they are big into VFIO and SR-IOV. Next time you get a PC, make sure to look for more PCI lanes and bifurcation support on your motherboard. Gen 4 is a great option because it generally has enough lanes and the ram and ssd are much cheaper than Gen 5. GPU choice doesnt matter much but if you’ve got AMD watch out for the reset bug. Basically you can start a VM but once you quit it the cards state is unavailable for further use (eg a second VM session or reopening your DE if you’re using a single GPU setup) unless you restart your host. There are some workarounds but personally I’d avoid it if possible. Onboard graphics (iris or amd APU) are recommended. Older hardware can get cheap so good luck saving up if this is something you want to do!

load more comments (2 replies)

load more comments